After thousands of dealership visits, Jim Roche learned to look past the showroom. In a forgotten back office, he found the stubborn problem that became WarrCloud.

A stale recall notice, a list of 42 VINs and one profitable experiment sent a third-generation dealer back to the car business - this time to make the software disappear and the appointments show up.

After 23 years at Kmart and service in the U.S. Navy, David Easterbrook founded AME to make dealerships work behind the showroom. Twenty-five years later, he is applying the same practical instinct to business, trades education and a family foundation.